


the one where lydia dies

by t3aa



Category: Beetlejuice - All Media Types
Genre: Apologies, Character Death, Characters are probably OOC, Comedy, F/M, Family, Family Bonding, Family Issues, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, I'm just gonna add tags as I go, Like, Multi, a lot of fluff, and im sorry about that, at least i hope so, because i really don't know what to tag, beetlebabes dni, beetlejuice and lydia are friends and nothing else, but it is fanfic, courtesy of juno, this is my first fic and i honestly dunno what im doing, ya nasties
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-25 02:34:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21348811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t3aa/pseuds/t3aa
Summary: hey y'all, so this is my first time writing a fanfiction for any fandom, and i don't have a beta to check over my work, so any comments are appreciated!i will try and update this on a regular basis, however, i am very busy, and doing so may not be possible.hope you guys enjoy!
Relationships: Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice & Lydia Deetz, Beetlejuice/Adam Maitland, Beetlejuice/Adam Maitland/Barbara Maitland, Beetlejuice/Barbara Maitland, Charles Deetz/Delia Deetz
Comments: 7
Kudos: 82





	the one where lydia dies

**Author's Note:**

> hey y'all, so this is my first time writing a fanfiction for any fandom, and i don't have a beta to check over my work, so any comments are appreciated!  
i will try and update this on a regular basis, however, i am very busy, and doing so may not be possible.  
hope you guys enjoy!

Lydia didn’t think that this was how it was going to end - her sprawled across the road, bleeding out, while a truck driver panicked in the background. She was only 17, the stuff she had packed for college sitting in the back seat of her now totaled car. 

Lydia painfully moved her head to look at the stars, taking a moment to find a familiar one, Betelgeuse. In a sudden moment of clarity, she realized she didn’t want to die alone, the still panicking driver notwithstanding. She decided, as the world around her got fuzzier, him showing up wouldn’t make it any worse, (and, although she would never admit it, she really did miss him.) And with that thought, spoke the magic word 3 times over, “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.”

The last thing she saw before her eyes closed was the face of a panicking, white haired demon, and the last thing she heard before slipping away was the raspy voice of said demon saying “Don’t worry babes, I gotcha. I’m the ghost with the most, remember?”

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

She didn’t know where she was expecting to wake up, but tucked into a bed wasn’t it. Looking around the room, she took notice of the black and white striped walls, the black dresser in the corner outfitted with teeth, and the black shag rug on the floor. She was definitely in Beetlejuice’s.... house? room? Lydia didn’t really see him as the “homeowner” type, more of the “sleep in a random dumpster every night” type. 

Regardless, she stood up, wrapping the blanket around her, and walked out the door. She stepped out into the hallway, and immediately heard a familiar voice coming from a room at the end of the hall. As she neared the slightly cracked door, she realized that Beetlejuice was… speaking Spanish? It was rapid-fire enough that with her few years school education, she couldn’t pick out even a single word. She poked her head in, and took in the sight in front of her.

Beetlejuice was pacing around what looked to be a living room, a phone floating next to his ear as he spoke into it. His hair was a dark green and light purple, which was a far cry from the shocking white she had seen as she lay dying. She just stood there and watched him for a while, him being too wrapped up in his conversation to notice. He looked… awful. His hair was worse than usual, his clothes even more unkempt and dirty, and the bags under his eyes were so dark they were nearly black, and he looked so very tired. Before she could think on it longer, however, she accidentally leaned against the door, causing it to squeak. Beetlejuice immediately whipped around, his eyes widening as they landed on her. The green in his hair got significantly brighter, streaks of a dull grey mixing in as he abruptly and quickly spoke into the phone, cutting off the person on the other end. He hung up and quickly walked towards her, grabbing her shoulders.

“Lyds! You’re finally awake! How are you? Are you feeling okay? No lasting pain?” He blabbered, moving her around by her shoulders to check her over, as if making sure she wasn’t still dying. A warm feeling blossomed in her chest, it was super sweet that the demon was so worried about her, as even though they had had some…. disagreements in the past, she still considered him a close friend, a brother, even (although she would take that to the grave, er... afterlife.) 

“Beej, i’m okay, see?” She said, moving her limbs a bit and squeezing the hands on her shoulders. He seemed to calm down marginally, the dull grey slowly leaving his hair. He removed his hands, one coming up to rub the back of his neck. Pink started to creep in, after realizing the display that just occurred. She couldn’t contain herself anymore, and wrapped her arms (and by extension, the blanket) around him, squeezing him tight. 

“I missed you so much. After all, we’re BFFFF’s forever, right?” She felt him hesitate, then wrap his arms around her. He squeezed her back hard enough that if she were still alive, she definitely wouldn’t be breathing anymore. She also felt something in her hair, kind of like… tears? Beetlejuice was crying, she realized. She moved her head to take a look at him, his hair now a mix of green, purple, blue, and a smidge of light pink. They stood there for a while, BJ’s quiet sniffles being the only sound in the room. Eventually, he let go, quickly wiping his eyes, and his hair creeping back towards its usual green.

“Sooo….” she started, readjusting the blanket around her, “What’s happened since I died?”

“Well, first thing’s first, you’ve been out for about…. Two weeks? Give or take that, at least.” He says, motioning for her to sit down on the couch. She does, slowly taking in the information, and he follows suit.

“Huh…. so I guess they’ve held my funeral already… Damn, I really wanted to attend my own funeral.” She mused, watching as BJ gave her a deadpan look that said _‘Really? That’s what you’re worried about?’_, and then smirked.

“Yeah, they held it. Donna picked out the colors, and they played Jo Jo Siwa as they lowered your pink, sparkly casket into the ground.” He drawled out, snickering as she punched his arm and glared at him.

“Not funny. Anyways, what were you doing on your phone? And since when can you speak Spanish?” She asked him, settling down into the cushions, her head tilted to look at him. 

He snorted, responding “Kid, I’ve been fluent in Spanish since before the steam engine was made, so that’s nothing new. As for what’s happened, nothing much. Time in the netherworld goes by differently, and I’ve been busy on the phone and pulling strings.” He said, watching as her eyes gained a curious glint. 

“Pulling strings to do what?” She questioned, expecting a very vague answer from the demon sat in front of her. However, what she wasn’t expecting was for his hair to go bright pink. 

“Well, Imayhavefoundawayforyoutobeademonbutitmeansbringingyouintothefamily?” He rushed out, looking off to the side, fidgeting. She slowly processed what he said, before leveling him with A Look. “This… bringing me into the family thing, not marriage again, right? Because I know it was a green-card thing, but I’d rather not go through it again, thanks.” 

His face went a bit green and he gagged, looking vaguely sick. “No, God/Satan no. And I’m going to apologize for ever trying in the first place, even if it was just a green-card thing, but you were the only one that would have even considered it. You’re like, 5,” he ignored her indignant “17!” and continued with “and I’m super old. Little girl is _definitely_ not my type. God/Satan, Imagine if we were in a relationship? That’s more fucked up than _I’m_ willing to go, which is saying something.” He said, shuttering a bit at the end.

Lydia thought about it for a second, before shuddering as well and nodding in agreement. “Yeah, you’re like some weird bastard rat uncle-brother thing, definitely not my type.” She said, sticking out her tongue at him, watching as his hair went bright green and he stuck his tongue out at her, trying not to smile.

“Yeah, you’re some strange angsty goth kid-sister. Now, the Maitlands…” he trailed off, wiggling his eyebrows. She gagged, quickly saying “I don’t want to hear about your crush on my ghost parents, Beej!” He just cackled as she swatted at him. She started laughing too, and they sat there just laughing for a few moments. Eventually, they both calmed down, and she asked “So, how exactly would I be brought into the family then?” 

“You’d just have to fill out paperwork basically saying that you’re willing to be accepted in the family and that you accept all powers and rights that come with it, blah blah blah.” He said, obviously not very enthused on talking about paperwork. “Oh! It also means that good ole Chuck and Donna, assuming they’re married when they die, will be demons, since they’re the most closely related to you!” 

Her eyes widened a bit. It was that easy to make people demons? Why weren’t there more of them then? As if he could read her mind, (and god, what a terrifying thought _that_ was), Beetlejuice kept talking. “I know it seems crazy, but this paperwork is like, _super_ restricted. However, I’m just That Good, and I managed to get it. If I went the legal route, it would’ve been months of getting approvals and hearings before I would’ve been able to even _think_ about getting it.” Lydia rolled her eyes, of _course_ he got it illegally - she didn’t know why she expected anything else. However, she did smile at the fact that he went through all of that trouble for her. Although, she did have one question for him.

“If you can make ghosts demons, what about the Maitlands?” She asked, deciding not to bring up dead mom, not wanting to have a repeat of what happened 3 years ago. He gave her a shit-eating grin, and she regretted the question immediately. “Babes, that would make them related to me, and incest isn't something I’m into.” She just groaned, burying her head into her hands as he snickered at her. She sighed a “Why do I even bother?” into her hands, causing the demon to laugh louder. She eventually pulled her head out of her hands as the snickering subsided, BJ wiping tears out of his eyes.

“To be fair, scarecrow, you set yourself up for that one.” He said, smirking when she glared at him.

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Anyways, what does being a demon even change?” She questioned, resettling herself so that she leaned against his arm, him shifting to make it a bit easier for her to do so. “Well, first thing’s first, the powers you get as a ghost will get boosted. I dunno how much, it’ll be determined when you become a demon. Also, you’ll be able to travel between planes of existence much easier, although to be at full power in the physical plane you’ll need a summons. The only reason I can’t do that at all without a summons is because of my dearly departed mother, Juno.” He said, his voice rising in pitch to mock Juno’s voice, his hair getting a bit darker as he did so. 

“She cursed me with the name thing, apparently I was being too annoying or something. Whatever, can’t do anything about it now.” He grumbled, his hair starting to turn green-blue. Lydia leaned her head against him for a second, and he took a deep breath in, calming himself down. His hair bled back to his normal color, if not slightly darker.

“This type of thing is… not too common, so there could be other effects, but nothing too severe. There is another thing, but I have no clue whether it’ll affect you or not.” He said, shifting uncomfortably as he did so. “What is it?” She asked gently, clearly sensing his unease, especially as his hair was turning yellow and blue. He sighed, standing up, back towards her, more yellow showing up as he did so.

“It’s probably best I show you, and then answer your questions.” He spoke, shucking off his jacket to reveal a striped undershirt and suspenders. Lydia was sufficiently confused at this point, wondering what had him so uncomfortable. “Beej, what are you do-” Her question was cut off by a popping noise, and the rushing of air as something came into existence. She gasped, taking in Beetlejuice’s new appearance. He now had two large wings extending from his back, the tips almost at the ground, the tops just above his head. All in all, they must have been about 6 feet long each. The wings were a midnight black on the outside, and unlike the rest of him, they were clean, all of the feathers perfectly in line. She couldn’t tell if they were a different color on the inside, due to Beetlejuice keeping them tucked so closely to his back. He watched her expression carefully, wings twitching and shuffling to show just how nervous he was. Picking up on this, she decided to reassure him.

“They’re amazing BJ! Were you born with them? Or did you get them later on?” She asked, getting up off the couch to stand in front of his back. She extended a hand to touch them, but stopped halfway. She looked at Beetlejuice, and although he still looked uncomfortable, he extended one out to meet her hand. They were soft under her hand, and she spent a moment just stroking her hand along them. She was also able to see the inside of the wings. They were black at the top, gradually getting lighter. However, the bottom 2 feet of feathers were the same yellow and blue his hair was. 

She removed her hand, giving him a smile. It seemed to calm him down a bit, a small smile forming as green bled back into his hair and wings, and he turned around to face her. “They _usually_ develop later on, once a demon starts to grow into their full powers. I’m powerful enough to have wings that I was basically born with, and are big enough to fly with. Even though most demons have wings, they’re usually not big enough to do much with, _maybe_ they’re big enough to glide with if they’re lucky.”

Lydia’s eyes widened. “Wait, so you can fly with these?” Beetlejuice just grinned at her in response. He seemed to be getting over the initial discomfort he had shown when revealing his wings, as they started to unfurl a bit, stretching comfortably behind him. “Yup! Even though we can float, it isn’t the fastest way to get around. These puppies get me around much faster, _and_ I get to show off while doing it.” She gave a small laugh, because that was definitely on brand for the demon. Although, there was one thing that was bothering her…

“Why haven’t you shown them off earlier?” She questioned him. He gave her a bit of a sad smile, wings flexing and stretching behind him as if to rid them of stiffness. “Well, seeing as breathers don’t usually have wings, they tend to… freak out. That’s why I didn’t show your sexy ghost parents either - too newlydead to not react badly.” He said, popping noises coming from his wings as he did so. He likely hadn’t stretched them since she’d died, not willing to take the chance that she would wake and see them, she realized. She felt a bit bad, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it now. (She could also tell that there was something else bothering him about her seeing his wings, but she wasn’t going to pry.) She was about to ask more questions, but a knock sounded at the door. Beetlejuice turned towards the door, wings flaring out to keep Lydia behind him as he called out. “It’s open, come in.”

A woman Lydia (surprisingly) recognized walked through, red dress sparkling in the room’s light. Beetlejuice relaxed as well, a smile forming on her face. “Maria, how nice to see you.” He said, watching as the woman rolled her eyes. “Hola, pendejo.” She replied, watching as Beetlejuice pretended to be offended. She looked over to Lydia, her eyebrows rising. “Oh. You’re the one he’s been going through all of this trouble for. You were the one who came to the Netherworld as a breather, right?” Lydia nodded, looking at the woman warily, not knowing how she’d react. The woman just gave her a toothy grin. “That took guts, hija. I like your style.” 

By now, Beetlejuice was done being overdramatic (for once), and finally decided to ask why Maria was there. She gave him a look, before responding with “Pendejo, we were on the phone like 20 minutes ago. I have the paperwork you’ve been asking for, unless you don’t want it anymore? And what a shame that would be, after all of the hoops you jumped through to get it.” He glared at her, a pout starting to form on his face. He muttered something in Spanish under his breath, causing her look to turn into a glare. “Don’t get short with me niño, I could very easily have not helped you. Take them and let’s get this over with. Sooner it’s done, the sooner I can file this and try to hide it.” 

Beetlejuice let out a long, overdramatic sigh, summoning up some fountain pens and a vial of…. Was that blood? Beetlejuice must have seen her looking, because he smirked and said “No need to be squeamish, it is _yours_ after all.” Lydia gave a sigh, honestly not surprised at this point. “Do I even want to know?” She tentatively questioned, watching as he rolled his eyes. “I got it when you died because I knew we’d need it for this, Lyds. It’s not like I’m a vampire that’s been going around secretly drinking or stealing your blood all these years. ‘Sides, I don’t sparkle enough for that.” 

“I’m not even going to ask about the Twilight reference, but if we need to sign in our blood, how are you going to sign?” She said, finally placing the blanket down onto the couch so that she would be able to pick up the pen. He responded by flat out jabbing the pen into his arm. “Beetlejuice!” Lydia hissed, stepping closer to see how much damage he did. He didn’t seem to be in any pain, instead calmly elaborating on why he had just stabbed himself. “Demons don’t have blood in the same way breathers do, but since we can have physical bodies, we do have something similar.” He proved this by taking the pen out, a dark red, nearly black substance dripping from the pen and wound. At this point, Lydia was just kind of done with everything and wanted to sign this and get it over with. She turned to Maria, who had been watching their interactions with a fond expression on her face.

She pulled a paper from seemingly nowhere, placing it down on a side table by the couch. “All you two need to do is sign at the bottom, and I’ll sign as a witness and then file it. ¿Claro?” Beetlejuice and Lydia nodded. Reluctantly dipping her pen into the blood (_her_ blood, although she wasn’t going to dwell on it longer than necessary), she signed her name on the provided line. Beetlejuice did the same, his writing noticeably sloppier than hers. Maria pulled out a pen and a vial of dark liquid that Lydia was _not_ going to think about, and signed the final line on the document. As soon as she finished, the contract glowed a dark purple, and Lydia felt a surge of power rush through her. Before she could even begin to process what was going on, she blacked out.

**Author's Note:**

> well, i hope you guys liked the first chapter!  
(i don't really know what to put in for a description as of now, but i'll hopefully update it soon.)  
as i said at the top, please leave comments/criticism! i don't really know what i'm doing so anything helps!
> 
> also, there is a small difference between my use of pink and light/soft pink: His hair is a more neon-y pink when he's flustered or embarrassed, and a softer, more pastel pink for love (platonic and romantic!)
> 
> and for anyone wanting more explanation on the wings, i have a full write up of it on my sideblog -> https://beeblebouse.tumblr.com/post/188811339359/oh-boy-here-it-is-my-overly-complicated-wing


End file.
